Siganus rivulatus

The generic name is new Latin derived from the Arabic sijan which is equivalent to the English "rabbitfish",[3] the specific name rivulatus refers to the irregular streaking.[4] It is the type species of the genus Siganus and therefore of the monogeneric family Siganidae too.[5] S. rivulatus was named by the Swedish zoologist Peter Forsskål and published posthumously in the book Descriptiones animalium, Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica, which was edited and published in 1775 by his friend Carsten Niebuhr.[6] The specific name rivulatus means “rivulated”, which in turn means “irregularly marked with colour”, a reference to its yellow streaks on its sides.[7]

If the revision of the genus Siganus into three new sub-genera proposed by Kuriiwa et al in 2007 is accepted the taxonomic position of S. rivulatus is uncertain thus no names for the proposed new groupings have been established.[8]

Siganus rivulatus has a laterally compressed body which has a standard length of 2.7-3.4 times the greatest body depth.[9] The dorsal fin has 14 spines and 10 soft rays, the anal fin has 7 spines and 9 soft rays, there are 23 vertebrae[10] and the caudal fin is slightly forked.[11] The longest spine in the dorsal fin is shorter than the distance between the front of the eye and the posterior edge of the operculum while the length of the longest dorsal ray is equal to or less than the length of the snout.[9] The slender spines are barbed and bear venom.[10] The teeth are incisor-like with lateral cusps and are arranged in a single row in the jaws.[9] The body is covered in small embedded scales,[11] except of the midline of the underside.[10] The colour is variable and it usually shows some darks spots and yellow wavy lines along the sides.[9] The upper body tends to be grey-green to brown with a yellow abdomen or silvery white underside.[11] It usually grows to around 10–20 centimetres (3.9–7.9 in), sometimes up to 27 cm in standard length but the maximum recorded size is 40 cm.[9]

Siganus rivulatus has a natural range which extends along the east African coast from South Africa to the Red Sea, including the Comoros, Madagascar and the Seychelles.[1] It was first recorded in the Mediterranean off the coast of Palestine in 1924,[11] following entry through the Suez Canal, and is now very common in the entire eastern Basin reaching as far as the Sicily channel[13] and parts of the Adriatic Sea.[14]

Siganus rivulatus occurs in shallow waters over substrates clothed with algae, including rocky and sandy as well as areas where the algae grows among sea grass beds at depths of less than 15m. It sometimes enters estuarine environments and so can be described as euryhaline.[15] It is normally found in schools of 50 to several hundred fish; it prefers sheltered areas. It feeds mainly by grazing on algae.[10]

The newly hatched fish larvae are planktonic feeders on small diatoms, as they grow they also feed on zooplankton such a copepods. The adults are mainly herbivorous, feeding mainly on algae including Polysiphonia spp and Sphacelaria spp.[10] but have been observed feeding on ctenophores and scyphozoans in the Spring and early summer within the northern Red Sea, attacking relatively large ctenophores until the disintegrate and on the schypozoan moon jellyfish Aurelia aurita until it sinks to the bottom.[16]

S. rivulatus reaches sexual maturity at a length of 13.7 cm.[10] The spawning season of S. rivulatus takes place when the water temperature reaches 24–27 °C[17] and is later in the Mediterranean, May to July, than it is in the Red Sea when the season runs through March, April and May. Spawing takes place at dusk, they are oviparous and the eggs are fertilised externally, the eggs are small, 0.5–0.6 mm in diameter and are adhesive, the adults show no parental care for the brood after spawning.[17] The larvae are planktonic and do not feed for three days after hatching, when they are about three weeks old they undergo metamorphosis and congregate in schools which migrate into deeper water.[15]

S. rivulatus is known to be a host of the following parasites: the Cliophoran Balantidium sigani; the copepod Bomolochus parvulus (nomen dubium); the monogeneans Tetrancistrum strophosolenus, Tetrancistrum suezicum, Glyphidohaptor plectocirra, the digenean Hexangium saudii, and the acanthocephalan Sclerocollum saudii.[5]

A 2019 study in the Red Sea, from a chronically polluted small bay at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, showed that S. rivulatus harboured Gyliauchen volubilis (Digenea), Procamallanus elatensis (Nematoda) and Sclerocollum rubrimaris (Acanthocephala); among these three parasites, only Sclerocollum rubrimaris accumulated trace metals such as Cadmium and Lead.[18]

• Photos of Siganus rivulatus on Sealife Collection